The Irish have spoiled the party. By decisively voting down in a referendum the proposed Lisbon Treaty on the future organization and governance of the European Union, the Irish have brought the whole process of EU reform to a dead halt.
Reactions have ranged from the splenetic and furious to the admiring and congratulatory. Official and bureaucratic circles in Brussels, and in a number of European capitals, have condemned the Irish for their attitude and their stubbornness. They have suggested that the Irish vote, which was based on a quite high total turnout of 53 percent, should just be ignored and the treaty process, which would give the EU its first full-time president and foreign minister, should just carry on.
Other voices have spoken for the public in a kindlier way. This is clearly a grassroots response to a complicated and centralizing plan for further European integration and ordinary people do not like it. In Britain in particular, all the opinion polls indicate an overwhelming dislike, not of the EU but of attempts to give it still more authority and power over the member nation states.